Papers Panel: Guidebooks to Sin: The Blue Books of Storyville, New Orleans

Abstract

Many scholars have written about Storyville, but no thorough contemporary study of the blue books has been available until now. These directories of the neighborhood’s prostitutes featured advertisements for liquor, brothels, and other goods and services available in the District. Illustrated with hundreds of facsimile pages from the blue books in The Historic New Orleans Collection’s holdings, Pamela D. Arceneaux, Senior Librarian/Rare Books Curator, presents this new annotated bibliography, a reference for historians, collectors, and rare book professionals. “Guidebooks to Sin” illuminates the intersection of race, commerce, and sex in this essential chapter of New Orleans history.